Safety device for feeders



Aug. 24, 1937. l. A. DUNCAN 2,090,752

SAFETY DEVICE FOR FEEDERS Filed D60. 28, 1935 filventar: d flaa XMQ/OMQ/I Patented Aug. 24, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT @FFEQE SAFETY DEVICE FOR FEEDERS Isaac Alexander Duncan, St. Louis, Mo. Application December 28, 1935, Serial No. 56,520

2 Claims.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in safety devices for feeders, the peculiarities of which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

My invention relates to that class of safety devices in which feed rolls and a horizontal apron conveyor feed material to a rotary cylinder or drum having picker points or other reducing means such as knives, which will maim the hand of the operator when his hand is accidentally drawn in by the feed rolls, as frequently occurs, particularly when reducing cotton or other fluify material that is not readily caught by the feed rolls. In such cases, the operator will flatten -3 the material just in front of the feed rolls with his hand, which is thus liable to be caught by the feed rolls and forced into the path of the reducing drum before he can disengage it.

It is the main object of my present invention 20 to provide means to guard the hand of the operator from such accidents as above stated.

In the accompanying drawing in which like reference numerals indicate corresponding parts, Fig. 1 represents a plan view of a machine embodying my improvements, with part of the cover broken away to show the feed rolls and picker drum; Fig. 2, a side elevation of Fig. 1

showing the driving mechanism; Fig. 3, a section on the line 33 of Fig. 1 showing feed rolls,

30 safety rolls, triangular bridge pieces and a portion of the picker drum; and Fig. 4, a view of a portion of the machine from the opposite side of that shown in Fig. 2, showing drive for the feed and safety rolls.

5 Mattresses are usually filled with cotton linters which have been compressed into bales after said lint has been removed from cotton seed. Before the filling is placed in the mattress, it must be broken up into uniform fiuify condition, as it 40 often has knots or bats of compressed linters which would destroy its uniform fluffy condition and produce unequal softness when placed in a mattress. Furthermore old mattress fillings are renovated to something near their original 45 fluffy condition and the bats and knots formed under usage, are broken up by suitable machines such as the one now to be described.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral I designates a cylindrical casing in which is mounted 50 a rotary cylinder 2 on a shaft 2 which is driven by the usual belt and pulley or otherwise, at various high speeds according to the diameter 1 and size of the machine. This cylinder or drum has radial picker points 3, generally bent for- 55 ward in the direction of rotation like a claw.

A longitudinal opening in the horizontal plane through the axis of said cylinder provides for admitting the cotton or other material to be reduced, when such material is forced into the path of the picker points rotating downward 5 past said opening, by spring-controlled feed rolls i and I mounted one over the other closely adjacent to the path of said picker points, and driven from said shaft in the usual manner.

A horizontal conveyor having an apron 4 ex- 10 tends from near said feed rolls toward the front of the machine between side boards 5, and is driven by suitable gears at reduced speed, generally from the shaft of the cylinder.

When cotton and like fluffy material is shovelled or thrown upon the apron of the conveyor, it is often rolled backward when it meets the feed rolls. In such case the operator will flatten it down by hand and is thus liable to get his hand caught by the feed rolls, and drawn be tween them into the path of the picker points before he can jerk it away. It is well known that such accidents are of frequent occurrence to operators using such a machine.

It is to avoid such accidents that I provide a safety device comprising a primary feed roller 8, mounted approximately one-half inch above the apron and closely adjacent the said feed rolls. This primary roller, having a larger opening to pass the material than the spring-controlled rollers (which are practically in contact except when sprung apart by the passage of the cotton between them,) will compress the cotton and feed it onward to the feed rolls in sufficiently compressed condition for said feed rolls 6 and l to take hold of it. The rotation of said primary roller at its lower surface is the same forward direction as that of the apron, and. the springcontrolled feed rolls hold the cotton between them while the projecting portion is torn away by the picker points.

This primary roller 8 is rotated by sprocket and link belt from the feed rolls, or otherwise.

On account of the loose and fluffy condition of cotton fed to this machine, I preferably provide a plurality or pair of rollers such as a secondary roller 9, mounted adjacent the primary roller and at a higher elevation from the apron, and rotating on its under surface in the same forward direction as the apron and the primary roller.

The bottoms of this pair of rollers 8 and 9, mounted at increasing heights above the conveyor apron form, in conjunction with said apron and move onward in the same direction, a wedgeshaped mouth for reception of the loose cotton,

gradually compressing the cotton mass to increasingly greater compactness and density while acting with increasing reactive pressure on 5 the upper and lower faces of the wedge-shaped mass to urge it onward till the continuously formed thin forward edge of said compacted mass is gripped continuously with increased positive pressure by the spring-controlled feed rolls 6 and I. The natural resiliency of the loose material causes a reactive pressure by rollers 8 and 9, and the spring-controlled rolls 6 and I give a positive pressure.

This method of changing the entering cotton from its more or less loose condition to a wedgeshaped mass of increasing compactness and density up to a thin forward edge which is gripped and pulled continuously by the springcontrolled rolls 6 and 'I and fed into the path of the picker points by which it is reduced to a uniform fluify condition, renders hand compression of the feed unnecessary and avoids danger of injury as above described.

Suitable sprockets and connecting link belt from the feed rolls or otherwise, drive said rollers 8 and 9, and the increasing wedge-like compression exerted on the cotton as it passes from the secondary to the primary roller, forms its forward portion into a comparatively thin layer that is readily engaged by the feed rolls 6 and I.

A compact, effective feed for cotton and like material, is thus provided, which practically eliminates any need of the operator using his hand to compress the cotton. Even should he do so and press down the cotton in front of the secondary roller 9, and have his hand drawn in under one or both of these rollers 8 and 9, the space by which they are separated from the conveyor apron, would allow him to disengage his 40 hand without serious damage thereto. Thus his hand could not be drawn into contact with the spring-controlled feed rolls 6 and 1 as is liable to happen when the latter rolls are unprotected by such a safety device, which also assists the feeding action as above described.

In order to facilitate the smooth and even movement of the cotton being compressed by the rollers B and 9, I preferably provide a triangular bridge piece H) which avoids any chance of the loose cotton passing upward between said rollers.

I also preferably provide a similar piece H) between the uppermost feed roll 6 and the adjacent roller 8, and likewise between the lower feed roll I and the adjacent end of the apron conveyor passing over its roller. These bridge pieces are located a little /4 inch) above a plane tangent to the lower face of said rollers 8 and 9,

and 6 and 8 respectively, and the corresponding bridge piece between the roll 1 and the apron roller is located below such a tangent plane. Thus the cotton is not liable to catch on said bridge pieces, nor to be forced upward in the space between the rolls themselves as might otherwise occur during the compressing and onward movement.

It is evident that my safety device will increase the efficiency of such a ginning machine as above described and also the output of such a machine, since it avoids delay which otherwise does occur, in the progress of the cotton and like material travelling from the apron conveyor through the feed rolls 6 and '1 into the path of the reducing cylinder.

It is evident that my safety device is adapted for use on other material than cotton, and in connection with feed rolls that deliver such material to other forms of reducing cylinder than the one provided with picker points as above described and shown herein. I do not limit my invention to the construction shown, except by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A safety device for feeders of cotton and like material having in combination, a toothed rotary cylinder, a casing therefor having a longitudinal opening in the horizontal plane through its axis, a pair of spring-controlled feed rolls mounted one over the other in said opening, a horizontal conveyor apron moving towards said feed rolls,

and a safety feeder device comprising a pair of rollers mounted adjacent said feed rolls above the inner end of the apron and characterized by different heights of their peripheries above said apron and having the same forward movement 1 as said apron forming with said apron a wedgeshaped mouth diminishing forward to increasingly compress and urge forward a mass of said material delivered thereto till its thin forward edge is gripped continuously with positive pressure by said spring-controlled feed rolls, substantially as described.

2. In a cotton picker, the combination of a pair of coacting feed rolls, an endless conveyor apron having an upper run arranged for moving material inwardly to said feed rolls, and a plurality of closely, adjacent rollers mounted above the inner end of said upper run, said rollers having the peripheries thereof spaced at successively increasing heights above the upper run from the inner end thereof providing a wedge-shaped mouth between said rollers and the apron to increasingly compress and urge forward the material to the feed rolls, said mouth being so contracted in width and extended in length as to prevent access of on operators fingers therethrough to the feed rolls.

ISAAC ALEXANDER DUNCAN. 

